FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, October 24th, 2012
For further information, please contact:
presssecretary at georgiagreenparty.org
Greens Urged to Act Tonight to Keep Stein in Debates
Today Cheri Honkala, vice-presidential nominee of the Green Party of
the United States circulated a letter stating: "We need you to vote
online right now to send Jill to the next Free&Equal third-party debate
in Washington, D.C."
Free&Equal organized last night's debate to which they invited the
Presidential Candidates who had met the criteria traditionally used by
the League of Women Voters when they hosted the nationally televised
Presidential Debates. Next week, Free&Equal will hold a follow-up
debate between the two candidates who garner the most votes in an
online poll, which closes at 10:30 pm Eastern this evening.
"Time is short, momentum is building and with your help we can keep our
Green Presidential nominee in front of the American public in next
week's debate," said Bruce Dixon, Chairman of the Georgia Green Party
and Managing Editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Anyone with access to a
browser and an email address can participate by going to:
http://freeandequal.org/vote/
The LWV criteria included all candidates who's name appeared on
sufficient ballots that with voter support they could win the electoral
college and the election. After John Anderson's showing in 1980 and
Ross Perot's campaign in 1992, the Commission on Presidential Debates, a
private corporation, largely funded by Anheuser-Bush and controlled by
lobbyists and operatives from the corporate parties organized to
prevent the participation of any party other than the Democrats and the
Republicans. The League of Women Voters refused to participate in what
they called the 'hoodwinking of the American public' by hosting a
debate they characterized as 'fraudulent'.
Ever since then the nominees of emerging political parties have been
denied access to the debates and since 2000, Green Party candidates
have been repeatedly arrested when attempting to gain access. Ralph
Nader won a settlement against the CPD stemming from his 2000 campaign
and this year Dr. Julia Stein is litigating the issue after spending
eight hours hand-cuffed to a chair by the CPD only to be released
without charges.
Last night's Free&Equal debate was originally to be available only by
internet streaming. But after the English editions of Al Jazeera and
Russia Today agreed to broadcast these debates to their audiences,
C-SPAN announced yesterday that they too would broadcast the event.
This election cycle a number of organizations, starting with
DemocracyNow.org have hosted debates among the candidates, using video
and web streaming technologies to include the candidates excluded by
the CPD in 'mash-up' debates with the candidates who did the
excluding. Video archives of these events are linked and embedded on
the website of the Georgia Green Party with most accessible from the
featured content slideshow on the front page. By Friday, a
comprehensive archive will be published at:
http://GeorgiaGreenParty.org/2012/InclusivePresidentialDebates
As Ms. Honkala put it in her email, "We have only a few hours left so
every vote will count, please share this with your friends. Thank you
for your support!"
-- 30 --